EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., March 31 (UPI) -- Space tracking and surveillance satellites built by U.S. companies Northrop Grumman and Raytheon successfully tracked a short-range missile in testing.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency STSS demonstration satellites, during an Airborne Laser Test Bed exercise, faced a different set of challenges than before because of quick timelines associated with the target, according to Gabe Watson, vice president of missile defense and missile warning programs for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector.
"STSS generated a track with the acquisition sensor and autonomously passed the track to the multi-band track sensor for the first time against a missile target," Watson said. "The system performed very well, without operator control and provided high-quality track data to the ground station."
Wilson said the STSS track sensor was cued significantly faster than in previous tests, which was required with this scenario.
"These demonstration satellites employ high-performance infrared sensors with on-board processing that are able to exploit all the advantages of space for precision missile tracking," he said.
The Missile Defense Agency is pursuing the STSS demonstration program as a space-based sensor component of the Ballistic Missile Defense System. Data from the STSS satellites support development of a future operational satellite constellation for the BMDS.
